Taken from the programme for ths visit of City of Liverpool, available on the gate for £2.

Good afternoon and welcome to today’s Hallmark Security League Premier division game against City of Liverpool. We welcome their officials, players and supporters to Brookburn Road and we hope they enjoy our hospitality today.

Although we did, of course, play each other twice last season this will be City of Liverpool’s first visit to our home ground, as last season’s ‘home’ game had to be played at Atherton Collieries due to our well documented floodlight problems.  On that night we came from 2-0 down at half time to win 4-3.

Our visitors have proved to be the form team of the league so far, are currently unbeaten in the league and well clear at the top of the table. Their only defeats so far have been against Conference North side Chester in the FA Cup and Northern league high flyers Hebburn Town in the FA Vase. They are a potent free scoring side as we discovered in the reverse fixture 3 weeks ago when we went down    4-0. We got off to a bad start on the day by conceding a penalty after 5 minutes and from then on it was a tough afternoon.

We know what to expect today and we know only a more resilient performance will give us any chance of getting a result.

Our last game on Tuesday proved to be another disappointment with a narrow 1-0 loss to Irlam. As the score suggests it was a close game with the difference being a poor early goal which we conceded. Our luck was summed up in the last few minutes when we had 2 shots in quick succession cleared off the line, the second one striking the goalkeeper without him knowing anything about it.

It was good to see Jamie Coombes finally take to the field in a West shirt. Along with Jack Sergeant Jamie has had to wait an age for international clearance to come through and hopefully he can now start to get regular game time for us. Jack still has a rib injury but is hoping to return next week.

West Women progressed in the Manchester Cup last Sunday with an 8-0 win against Didsbury ladies. They are at home tomorrow against Altrincham ladies then visit Chester ladies on 4 November both games are 2pm ko. Following that they have a back to back double header against City of Liverpool’s ladies team, home on the 11^th and away on the 18^th.

We now have a rearranged fixture next Saturday 3 November when we visit Barnoldswick Town  ko 3pm.  We then face Ashton Athletic here on Tuesday 6 November in the Lancashire Trophy ko 7.45.   

Finally a final reminder that our traditional Bonfire and Firework display takes place next Sunday 4 November from 6.30. This is always a well attended event and if any supporters can spare a couple of hours on the night to assist with stewarding etc your help wold be much appreciated.

Thank you for visiting Brookburn Road and have a safe journey home.